Remember Me?
by Alene236
Summary: Juno graduates college with a degree in journalism she marries Bleeker who's a chemistry teacher back at their old high school. Vanessa falls fatally ill and asks Juno asks her a very big favor to have Juno adopt her biological son is Juno up to the task?
1. Chapter 1

"Remember me?"

Summary: Juno graduates college with a degree in journalism. She marries Bleeker, who's a chemistry teacher and new track coach back at their old high school. Vanessa falls fataly ill and asks Juno a very very big favor, to have Juno adopt her biological son. "I'm not going to be around much longer, and I can't think of anyone else to love him more."

Ch. 1

The sun poured into the window as Juno opened her eyes and stretched.

"Another lazy day of doing nothing." Juno thought to herself as she looked around her bedroom she shared with her husband, Paulie Bleeker. On the walls were pictures of them from their wedding and of prom their senior year. That was the year after. . . well, she didn't like talking about it. Juno rolled out of the bed and got ready to shower. Juno didn't really have a set schedule for anything. She just up and went as needed. Even with her job, or lack there of, she didn't have a schedule. Juno was in the market for finding a job, as she was a freelance journalist. Admittably, it didn't pay as well as she had hoped, but she found that she was bursting with opinions and she wanted people to hear them. She was even told that her sarcasm and turn of phrase were catchy, upbeat, and addicting. Yet, she couldn't find someone to take her work and publish it. So she was currently writing online for a website that paid her per story written. She didn't have deadlines, she didn't have anything to work for with this "job" and Juno wanted a challenge.

After her shower Juno checked her cellphone for missed calls. There were three. One from her husband, Bleek as she still called him even after all these years, even after all that had happened eight years ago. And two from an unknown number. Bleeker was at work, she'd check in on him around 12:15, that was his planning period. She had no clue who the unknown number could possibly be, she noticed the voicemail icon at the top of the screen and decided to listen.

"Hello? Juno? It's Vanessa. Remember me? I was wondering if maybe you would like to get lunch later today? I have a question for you. Call me back. Bye."

Juno stared at her phone.

"No. No way." Juno thought as she listened to the message again. "I thought I was done with all of this." With slightly trembling hands she called Vanessa back. "Please go to voicemail." she siliently pleaded, "please!"

"Hello?" Vanessa answered. Juno swore loudly inside of her own head.

"Uh, hi? Vanessa? It's Juno? You wanted me to call you?" Juno didn't exactly know what to do about this situation.

"Oh, yes, good you got my message. I need to talk to you. It's important. Meet me at the mall around, say, 11:30? We can talk and get lunch after."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Juno said as she glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand and noticing the time said 11:15. "I'll be right there."

Juno hopped into her car and just sat there. Confused, worried, what if there was something wrong with the kid that Juno gave Vanessa? What did she name him? Oh, right, Anthony. What if something was wrong with Anthony and Vanessa wanted an explanation. What if he has a sickness of some kind and Vanessa wants money from Juno? She wouldn't do that, right? She wouldn't blame Juno for something so completely out of her control, would she? Juno cleared her mind rolled down her windows and drove off to the mall. The ride to the mall was a short one. Juno was glad because her thoughts were reeling and she found it hard to concentrate. She parked the car and headed to the main entrance of the mall where she saw Vanessa. Tall, dark hair pulled back into a pony tail, crisp white shirt under a grey sweater with jeans. Vanessa saw Juno and waved.

"So. . . what's up?" Juno asked tentatively. Vanessa took a deep breath.

"It's kind of hard to say. But I recently went to the doctor for a checkup, and. . . " she broke off.

"And what? What's wrong?" Juno asked worriedly.

"And I only have a month to live," Vanessa whispered. She broke down, sobbing. "I - I don't know what to do with Anthony. How do I tell him? He's only eight years old. How am I supposed to tell him his mommy is not going to be able to take care of him for much longer? How do I tell him?" more crying, "I only have one thing to ask you, Juno, it is probably the most important thing. I need you to take custody of Anthony."

"Wait. What? You want me to adopt him? Are you sure you want me to do it? I gave him to you in the first place." Juno didn't know what else to say. So she just said whatever came to mind.

Vanessa took another deep breath and answered, "I know. I'm not going to be around much longer, and I can't think of anyone else to love him more."

Juno didn't know how to handle this. When someone is dying and one of their last wishes is to have their adopted son taken care of by their biological mother, who knew he'd have a better life with adopted parents, what are you supposed to say? Sorry but I just can't take care of this kid?

"I don't know the first thing about raising children. Does he even know he's adopted?" Juno asked.

Vanessa nodded, "I've always told him that he has another mommy out there and she wanted him to be happy so she let him come live with me. To let me be his mommy and make sure he was happy and safe. He never asks any other questions than that. He did ask why he wasn't allowed to see you, but I told him that I didn't know where you were. Which wasn't a lie. I had to track down your friend, Leah, just to get your number. You don't have a landline so I had to call your cell."

Juno was dumbfounded. "I, uh, I guess I need to tell my husband. It would probably be a good idea to let him know we are going to be taking in our child."

Vanessa smiled. "Thank you so, so much Juno. You don't know just how much this means to me. We have so much to work out."

**A/N: I know it's short. I'm not sure how this will be taken. I need YOU to help me out. YOU the reader need to tell me whether this is worth continuing. A beta reader will also be appreciated. Who's up for the task?**


	2. Chapter 2

Remember Me?

Ch. 2

Juno was driving back home, her lunch with Vanessa was still in the forefront of her mind. She agreed to talk to Bleeker about Anthony. Somewhere deep inside Bleeker, Juno knew, he wanted to take care of his son, but now? He and Juno hadn't even been trying to have children lately. She made her mind think of anything else besides Vanessa and Anthony. She decided to focus on the road. But that didn't nessisarily work out too well. She couldn't help but think the worst at this moment. What if Bleeker didn't want Anthony? What was she supposed to do? That was all Vanessa wanted her to do and that was all she could do.

Juno made it back to her house, took a deep sigh and got out of her car.Bleeker was still at work. It was too late to call him, he'd be teaching his class right now. Fortunately he didn't have track practice today. Juno, never being able to cook whatsoever, decided to get Chinese takeout, Bleeker's favorite. She wasn't exactly sure how to tell him about Anthony. She figured just telling him about what happened would do, but she had never been this nervous.

To try to calm those nerves Juno sat at her desk which held her laptop that she did all of her writing from. She tried thinking of anything that she had an opinion on strong enough to write a report on. Of course, nothing came to mind.

"Alright Juno, think," she said to herself. It didn't work. Okay, little miss Leah, what are you up to? Juno needed to do something, talk to someone. And seeing as her husband was at work she didnt really know who else to talk to right now.

She picked up her phone and dialed the all too familiar number.

"Speak," Leah answered from the other side.

"Leah, you're not busy are you?" Juno asked.

"Juno?" Leah sounded confused.

"No it's Bob Marley. Yes it's me! Do you ever use your caller ID?" Juno asked somewhat annoyed at her friend. After all these years her friend still couldn't tell when it was her calling.

"Not when I want to annoy you. Haha I win!"

"You sound like a four year old, you know that?"

"So what's up?" Leah asked finally.

"I need to talk to you. Well, I just need to talk and Bleek's working and I have no clue. . . " she let her sentence trail off.

"June?"

"Yeah?"

"Just get over here."

Juno sat in Leah's appartment at her tiny dining table. She held a mug of coffee in her hands and took a breath.

"So tell me what's up? Is there trouble in paradise?" Leah poked.

"No, at least I don't think so, not yet. It's just. Okay so Vanessa called me earlier. She said it ws important, so I called her back and we met up for lunch. Leah, she's . . . she's, dying. And she wants me and Bleeker to adopt our son." Juno took a big sip from her coffee, yes, she know's drinking coffee in the middle of the day isn't the most healthy thing for her, but oh well.

"So what does Bleeker think? Or have you not told him yet?" Leah guessed.

"I just found out today. I'm going to get some takeout and tell him over dinner."

"Wow, romantic, chinese food," Leah laughed.

"Well, June, I think you should get to know the boy, so when he has to come live with you he already knows you and he's not afraid. I mean, he doesn't know that the woman who is raising him is dying, right? So let him get to know you guys. but I don't know, it just sounds like a good idea to me," Leah suggested.

"Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea." And with that Juno left.

Juno came home and found Bleeker sitting on the couch watching some pointless comedy.

"Oh, hey Juno. How was your day? Write any more reports?" He asked.

"Um, no not really, I couldn't get in the mind set, y'know? So what do you want from Ling Lings for dinner tonight?" Juno dialed the resturaunts number into her phone.

"Eh, whatever, I'm not in a picky mood tonight." Juno nodded her recognition and continued ordering.

"So, Bleek, how was your day?" Juno asked as she sat down.

"Pretty boring. Darren Drakes decided today was the day he wasn't going to wear his safety goggles, he doesn't have eyebrows anymore." Bleeker answered.

"Seriously? Why didn't anyone do that while we went to that school? Man! That would have been the most hilarious thing ever!" Juno laughed. They laughed at the poor sap who no longer has eyebrows until the delievery boy came to the door with their chinese food. Juno set up the food on the table and they sat down to eat.

"So Bleek. You will never guess who called me today. . . " Juno started.

"I don't know, who?"

"Vanessa."

"Vanessa! What did she want? Is there something wrong with, oh what's his name. . . um. . . "

"Anthony"

"Anthony! yes! Was there something wrong with Anthony?" he asked.

"No, but. . . I. . . Bleeker, Vanessa is. . . she's. . . alright, she only has a month to live. . . and. . . "

"What? What's going to happen to Anthony? Juno, do you think. .. . Maybe we should take him in?" Bleeker asked looking up from his fried rice at his wife.

"Oh, Bleek. That's. . . wow. . . Vanessa asked me to adopt him today. She wants us to take care of him. So, I guess you're cool with that then?" she stared at her husband in disbelief.

"Yeah I'm cool with it. Juno, I've always wanted to take care of our son. I think this is our chance to have our family."

"Right, well, I'll just call up Vanessa and figure out what to do next." Juno said reaching for her phone.

**A/N: so what did you think? I guess I had it in my mind that what Juno went through when she was 16 made her mature faster, so even though she's only 24 in my story, she feels kind of motherly toward her son who she never got to know. And I always had it in my mind that Bleeker didn't really want Juno to give the baby up. Like when he asked Juno, "What are you going to do?" and she said "oh you know, I'd figure I'd just nip it in the bud before it gets worse. Are you cool with that?" To me it seemed like Bleeker wanted to keep it but didn't want to argue with Juno so he basically said yeah sure whatever you want. So to me, he would do whatever he could to care for his son now that he has a job and a house and a steady income.**


	3. Chapter 3

Remember Me? ch. 3

**A/N: I know I know just kill me because I haven't updated but there is no excuse other than I was just plain lazy. hahaha. I start school next week so be prepared for my writing to come to a major slow down or even a stop until I get some form of vacation. Anywhooooo. . . on with the story!**

Later on that night Juno called Vanessa to plan what to do next and how to move on to the next step but was surprised when it wasn't Vanessa's voice she heard answer the phone but a young boys voice instead.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hey, um, it's Juno. . . is your Mom home?" Juno asked tentatively.

"Yes, she is. Hold on," Juno heard muffled noises and noticed he was trying to cover up the mouth piece of the phone. "Mom, some lady named Juno is on the phone for you?" Juno heard more muffled sounds as the phone was being passed from Anthony's hands to Vanessa's.

"Juno? Hi!" Vanessa answered.

"Yeah, well I talked to Bleeker and he would love to take Anthony in. I was wondering if maybe this Saturday Bleeker and I can pick him up and take him out and spend some time with him, so then he knows us a little bit better before he comes to live with us?" Juno held her breath and hoped Vanessa hadn't changed her mind.

"Well, let me ask him," Vanessa answered as she turned her head away from the phone Juno heard her ask: "Anthony, sweetie, Mommies friends Juno and Bleeker want to take you out this Saturday so Mommie can have a day to herself, would you like to spend time with them?" Juno supposed Anthony said yes because next thing she heard was:

"Alright June, he said he'd love to. About what time will you be here to pick him up?"

-Saturday-Anthony POV-

I woke up today and rolled over in bed to look at my alarm clock on the table next to my bed, it read "8:30" Juno and Bleeker weren't supposed to be here until 10:00 so I had time to get ready.

"Anthony?" Mom voiced from my doorway.

"yes Mom?" I answered back.

"You all set for today?" she asked bitting her lip.

"Mom I just woke up. Can I at least get dressed and eat before I call myself 'ready'?"

Mom laughed and walked away. I opened up the top drawer in my dresser and looked at my clothes. Since Mom still bought my clothes most of my dresser was full of sweater vests and other disgustingly "cute" things as my mother liked to call them. I dug for a bit until I found my favorite t-shirt that I got from Mark, a friend of Mom's who comes around on Christmas and my birthday and gives me presents that I know Mom would never even consider getting me. Like this shirt. It was gray and had a picture of a guitar on it.

All I remember from getting this gift is it was my birthday earlier this year and there was a ring from the doorbell and I went to answer the door. Mark was standing there holding a present, Mom came up behind me and said "Oh, Mark, you made it." In a voice that only sounded fake, like she didn't want him there. Mark handed me the present and said:

"Here bud. I thought you might like this."

So, obviously, I tore open the wrapping paper and in the small box was this shirt. I saw the picture of the guitar on it and smiled. I loved music, for as long as I could remember I loved music, and I always wanted to play the guitar, which I one day told Mark about.

He laughed and said, "don't tell your mother." I didn't listen to him and I remember when I told Mom that I wanted to play the guitar she got a funny look on her face and said, "Well I would love it if you tried the cello instead." that was about three months ago and I took what she said to mean "cello first, guitar later". I don't really think that is what Mom meant now that I look back on it, but I'm not going to give up. I'll wear her down eventually.

I glanced around the room toward my cello sitting on its stand in the corner. I detested playing it. It was a nice instrument but every time I looked at it I imagined myself playing guitar instead.

I let out a sigh and walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Mom was standing at the sink and she turned around to look at me when she realized that I was there.

"Oh, sweetie, you have so many adorable outfits in your dresser, why do you have to wear that one?" she asked looking down at my jeans and t-shirt.

"Well I like it. And it's not itchy like those dumb sweaters are."

"Anthony Loring! Those sweaters are cute and they look nice on you. They are not 'dumb'." I decided to let her win that one and I grabbed a banana from the bowl on the counter and ate it in the living room while I watched Spongebob on the T.V. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door.

"I got it!" Mom said racing to the door.

"Hey Vanessa, is Anthony ready?" the voice from the phone said. Why does it sound as if I have heard it somewhere else too? Like it's way too familiar.

"Yes, Juno, he's right here." wait a second. Juno. . . Juno? Oh my gosh Juno! I ran past the door and up the stairs to my room. Mom once had a framed note from my real mom but the note got replaced after I was born with a picture of me and mom. I opened the bottom drawer of my dresser and dug to the back corner. I found the yellow note and read it once, twice, three times before it hit me. I'm going to meet my real mom. I stood up and stared at her name scribbled along the bottom of the paper.

"Anthony! What have I told you about running in the house! And you didn't even say hello to our guests. They're here for you, you know," Mom said opening my door. I looked up at her and my eyes met hers.

"She's really my mom isn't she? And Bleeker. . . he's really my dad?" I looked beyond Mom, Juno and Bleeker were standing behind her. Mom nodded and I knew she probably had a day and time all planned out for telling me about this. I wasn't angry at her, or my real parents, I knew Mom had adopted me. Now I was just excited. I'm finally going to get to know my real parents! This is so cool!

"Anthony why don't we go downstairs and get acquainted with each other, then you guys can leave," Mom suggested as she turned and walked down the stairs.

"Hey, kid, I like your shirt." Juno said to me smiling.

"Thank you. Mom doesn't like it, but it's my favorite shirt. I got it from Mark, he's one of Mom's friends. . . I think." Juno nodded and sat across from me on the other sofa in the living room. Bleeker quietly sat next to her. He looks like me. But my hair is darker, like Juno's.

-Juno POV-

Anthony was tall and gangly for his age, I mean he was only 8, but I guess he takes after Bleeker. I see a lot of Bleeker in Anthony's face. But Anthony has my dark hair. That Vanessa has perfectly clipped very short. I almost gag. This kid has no way of expressing himself.

"So, Anthony, you play any instruments?" I ask him while Vanessa is in the kitchen getting us some cucumber water. What is up with her and her drinks? Anthony puts a disgusted look on his face and says:

"I play the cello."

"Oh, that's cool. . . I rock a harmony and Bleeker also plays guitar." as I say this Anthony's face lightens up and he says:

"That's so cool! I wanted to learn how to play the guitar but Mom wanted me to learn the cello. It's not that I don't like the cello it's just. . . . well I don't like the cello." I laughed. Typical Vanessa, wanting the perfect child. This kid is the spawn of me and Bleeker, no doubt about it. I think I'm going to like taking care of this kid. He's pretty cool.

"Yeah so today Juno and I were going to take you out to a movie, then something to eat, then we plan it from there. Sound good?" Bleeker asks looking at Anthony, then me. Anthony nods and Vanessa hands us glasses of cucumber water.

I thought to myself, I only have about three more weeks before he's living with us. Will he be ready? How can we prepare him for this?

**A/N: I always wondered what would Vanessa do if Juno's son ended up being just like her and Bleeker? So he's kind of a rebel to Vanessa. I'm not sure how I want Anthony to find out about his mom. I mean he just met Juno and Bleeker so I don't want to spring it on him, then again he supposedly only has three weeks left with Vanessa. So. . . I'm at a rut with that. . . yeah.**


	4. Chapter 4

Remember Me?

Ch. 4

**A/N: I know, I know, I haven't written in about a year. Stone me. I've been terribly busy but school's ended and I have time to write. I would like to address a review that I actually liked although it pointed out my major downfall. It was from Mona Ogg: **

"_**Interesting plot idea. I'm looking forward to reading more of this story. However, I think the way you're handling Vanessa's illness is not too realistic. First of all, if her diagnosis was so bad that her doctor thought she'd only have about one month to live, she would most probably be feeling very ill and showing symptoms of weakness and pain that Anthony would have noticed, so he wouldn't be completely clueless about the situation. He may not know how bad it is, but children are usually very intuitive about such things. Another thing is that those kinds of predictions aren't always accurate, so if a doctor says someone has three months left, he may die three weeks later due to complications, or he may make it for another six months or even a year if he reacts well to the medication and is careful about his health otherwise. It's not like the doctors know everything and you can enter the date of your death into your calendar after he's given you such a diagnosis. Counting down from "one month" to "three weeks" without a new diagnosis to back it up is a bit naïve. **_

_**However, it's your story and you (as the author) know best when Vanessa is going to die, so I'm not going to complain again if the countdown proves to be accurate. I'm guessing the focus of your story won't be on Vanessa for too long anyway, right? So it's not all that important. I hope you're going to continue this story." **_

**Truth be told I just wanted Vanessa out of the way because she annoys me. I really didn't think of what she had because I was planning on most of the story being with Anthony and his biological family and their adventures. So you caught me. Hahaha. I hope this doesn't deter you from reading the rest of my story since I'm being unrealistic and naïve about Vanessa's illness. I get where you are coming from and I'm surprised no one was yelling at me about it before hand. That and I'm not good at writing about degenerating health because it depresses me and when I'm depressed I can't write so I figured that was a bad idea. Thank you for actually giving me a real criticism that I found quite constructive, it's readers like you that keep me from becoming slack. **

**Now on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Juno, or Bleeker, or Vanessa, or Winnie the Pooh (you'll see), or sour patch kids. Although the movie that they go to see I made the name up off the top of my head, so if there is an actual movie with that name I apologize because I just strung some cool sounding words together and made a name.**

**Anthony's POV**

I sat in the back seat of Juno and Bleeker's car…or should I call it Mom and Dad's car? I don't know, I'll figure that one out later. We were headed to the movie theater, they said I get to pick. Pretty cool, huh? Mom doesn't always let me pick which movies we go to watch and she always drags me to some kiddy movie, one with singing bunnies and talking flowers. They made me want to gag. I tried telling her that I'm eight years old and can watch movies without disgustingly (my words) "cute" (Mom's words) animals and stories that have no problems throughout the entire movie. Like Winnie the Pooh…ugh…Mom took me to see that a few months ago. I fell asleep while watching it but it started with the animals in the woods jumping around and dancing, and it ended with animals jumping around and dancing.

I want to see movies with explosions and gun fights! Mom says they're too "violent" and that they will "teach" me "to kill and destroy and hurt people" as if! I just think it's cool.

We finally made it to the movie theater; I got out of the car and walked between Juno and Bleeker up to the building.

"So, Anthony, do you have any nicknames?" Bleeker asked me.

I looked up at him and answered, "Um, yeah, the kids at school call me "Ant". Because I don't like "Tony" and "Anthony" is what Mom calls me."

"Ant? That's a pretty wizard nickname. I like it!" Juno smiled.

"Yeah, me too. Did you guys ever have any nicknames?" I asked them. I liked talking to them, they didn't make me feel like I was a little kid.

"Well, My real name is Paul. I've gone by "Paulie" and "Bleeker" or "Bleek." Bleeker answered.

"Wait, where does Bleeker come from then?" I thought his real name was Bleeker.

"Well, it's my last name." Bleeker explained to me. We made it up to the ticket window, Juno looked down at me.

"So, Ant, you know what movie you want to watch?"

"Um…how about 'Kings of the Night?' I saw the preview for that on TV the other night."

It was rated PG-13, I hoped they let me watch it. Mom only lets me watch G rated movies. Although there are some times when I convince Mom to let me go out with Mark, and we watch R rated movies, and eat unhealthy fast food, and he teaches me about his guitars.

"You have good taste in action movies. Kudos." Juno bought three tickets and we went to the concessions counter. "Alright, kid, you get to pick a box of candy and we'll also get some popcorn." Juno let me get a box of sour patch kids, smiling and saying "just like your father," and winking at me.

We sat down to watch the movie; they let me choose where we sat. I chose to sit in the front row, center. Mom always wanted to sit in the middle; I didn't think that was any fun.

The movie opened with an intense chase scene. Two guys in really cool cars were trying to out run this group of people in a big black van. There was a lot of shooting and windows smashing. I didn't fall asleep throughout the entire movie. It was so cool! There were gun fights and explosions, it was my type of movie!

"So, Ant, did you like the movie?" Juno asked me as we were leaving the theater. I nodded my head and finished off the sour patch kids.

"Ok, so where to next?" Bleeker asked while he unlocked the car and we piled in.

**A/N: So there is the first part of Anthony's first day with his parents. What do you think? And before you get all "they let him watch a PG-13 movie at his age? I based his movie taste off of my 7 year old brothers, he watches blow stuff up movies all the time and he's completely fine. That and Anthony's character is much more mature than my brother in real life so I think he'd handle it fine.**


End file.
